Moonglade Of Dark Forest studies

A bunch of random sketches and more finished drawings within the world of Moonglade. You can find some other Moonglade drawings, from older posts, which have been updated with thumbnails and early sketches HERE and HERE.
Here's an excerpt from part of the story of Moonglade; just a quick bit.


Cold and merciless, the wind tore at Moonglade’s face, the frozen twilight air heavy in his lungs. He pressed up against the trunk of the tree and drew his cloak tightly around his body. The tree's roots encircled him, cradled him and he thought of Oshintina and the life he had left behind. The world seemed a barren place, long left abandoned. “Where was she now?”, he thought. Now when almost everything was lost.

In the distance he could make out the forms of figures; shadowy and misty, they called to him. His mind hazy with the spell of the petals, he clambered to arise from his safe spot in the enclosure of the tree. Was it his friends asking him to join them? He wondered briefly if he should have taken the stem of the plant as well, but the energy he could gain from it was more than enough reason to justify its injestion. Soon, when it’s initial effects had worn off, he would be able to go many hours without having to rest, sleep or eat. The times ahead called for precautions and this was the only one he knew.

The forms were getting closer and he could begin to make out more definition. These were not his friends...the voices were the same but the faces were different. The heads had gray masses where the features should be and though they spoke, there were no mouths. There were three of the creatures, and all seemed to radiate a cold, dull light. It’s bluish tint cast an eerie glow on Moonglade. Clouds of fog rolled in from the forest on both sides, moving hypnotically around the shadowy figures, entrancing Moonglade, making him dizzy. What was it they wanted?

He shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts...the largest shape before him suddenly began to move forward, as if on an invisible cushion of air, gliding along, stopping only feet from the frozen Moonglade.

Frozen...with cold and with fear, unable to move; unable to speak.

A slender, delicate hand with long, snakelike fingers came forth from the middle being and in a tone not unlike that of his missing friend, Galsant, it told him:

“You are the one that the Ukrites fear, but your path lies a different way. Do not walk these woods once the sun retreats into the Western Hemisphere. You will find only death here.“

Sketches and stuff

A few various bits from recent months...incld. a part of a page from work done today (you can see some ideas for boxers written down in the upper left)...it was late in the day, it felt like the office was around 90 degrees and I was thisclose to falling asleep..i started sketching this guy and slowly started coming back awake. At top is an updated style ver. of William:Keeper of The Cosmic All. In his right hand, he's holding Secrets of The Cosmos, first seen in the first installment of William...which one of these days might see it's own blog, showcasing the series which ran in the Brooklyn College Kingsman almost twenty years ago.

Recent Sketches

Just a few things taken from a current sketchbook.

Kamen Rider helmet designs

These are a couple of designs for a helmet for Kamen Rider Fiercer..my own Kamen Rider character..name credit goes to Greg Follender. Kamen Rider is a Japanese live action super-hero show first broadcast in Japan in 1971. There have been many Kamen Riders over the years. The show was brought to the US in the mid 1990's by Saban (of Power Rangers infamy) and called Masked Rider (Kamen means 'masked' in Japanese). The US episodes used footage from the Japanese series Kamen Rider Black and Kamen Rider Black RX, both of which originally aired in Japan in the mid 1980's.

Floatin' Justin Collab

My friend Carlos and I have done a bunch of collaborations the last couple of years, since first working together at AME (American Marketing Enterprises), an apparel company in Manhattan. Carlos sketched this up this morning at work and sent it over - his ver. of me floating, based on my floating guys drawings..(and since the last one I did sorta looked like him - unintentional!) I inked this at home at night ... I thought his original sketch was great and had a lot of fun finishing it. Anyone who knows me will get the references!

...OMMM...

I was over the future in-laws today and brought the sketchbook along...besides the requisite monster, I did this guy - another rotund, small statured, floating bald guy.

Washington Square Park

These are three panels from a two page comic strip I did about Washington Square Park, in NYC's Greenwich Village. Just a short little slice 'o life piece...one of these days I'll go back in and clean up some panels and post the full thing. For now, three of the better panels.

Napkin Sketches

some more random sketches..these are from life..drawn at Bon Buffet (Chinese buffet place) in Hackensack, NJ.

Floating Guy napkin sketch

I tend to do little doodles on napkins and whatever bits of paper I can find, when I'm waiting in a car or at a restaurant...this little floating guy was done during the former a few weeks back. I'd just finished reading Dave Cooper's Pip and Norton and still had the image of Pip, floating about, from the comic in my head, so i did my own little floating guy. Be sure to check out Dave's amazing work at his site www.davegraphics.com

Mike Tyson

This was done for the cover of a comic on Mike Tyson, published by the highly cheesy Personality Comics in the early 90's. They produced a number of bios and pin-up books on rock bands and celebrities. I also did pin-ups for an issue on Madonna and one on Star Trek related characters (I did Harry Mudd). I also lettered, of all things, an issue of Rock-N-Roll Comics on Kiss, which was inked by my friend Mitch Waxman, creator of Calber Press' Plasma Baby (for which I provided painted covers and inked most of an issue).

The original cover for the Mike Tyson painting contained the title belt behind Mike, but I was unhappy with it in hindsight and removed it, replacing it with the Photoshop textured background shown here. The painting, done in oils is on 15"X20" illustration board.

The Lipzoids in 'Sculpture Class'

Another installment of The Lipzoids!! This strip ran in the Kingsman, Brookln College's newspaper in 1987/88. My commentary on the high level of art education I received at school.

The Devil's Child and Sign Of The Beast

The color piece was done in 1990 as a school project...the face is a painted over photo of my friend Marcos, who wound up being my model/subject for alot of the paintings and work I did back then. I've added a little bit of Photoshop touchup..the border and the texturing on the devil pentagram. The script writing is 'authentic' Satanic verses that I found...somewhere. I think this was to illustrate an article on kids getting involved in Satanism. The sketch is recent and with no real meaning...both of these are for Jesse.

Jenny Gunn - inked

Here's another in the line of my 'have your friends do your dirty work' series of art...this is the inked ver. of my pencils found somewhere below...the inks were done by my good friend Rob Kramer and I think he did an awesome job...be sure to check out his art on his website, 'AK-Studios.com'...link found on the right hand side of this page.

Hula Girl

Here's a couple of rough sketches of a Hula wearing girl, originally done for a boxer design...it was gonna say 'Nice Coconuts'...very witty, I know...well, we decided instead to go with a more traditional 'wiggling hips' style figurine for the icon in the repeat. I might continue working on this for myself, though.

Robot Designs

Late this past December, I received an e-mail asking if I'd help design a robot to eventuallly be turned into a rod-puppet that would be used as a character in short films on a new website. The website is still in development and will also include reviews of movies, dvds, toys and other stuff as well as info on puppet related media. Here are some of the designs I worked on. The color ver., based on the final, approved design sketch, was done by Brad Hofbauer. Though his ver. is all gold, the final puppet will likely have black gloves and boots and accents on his face.